Thursday, August 27, 2015

We apologize for the quiet over here at Offbeat Avenue, but we've been so busy!

It's that time of the year when everyone has finished vacations, and are preparing for back to school. But here, we are preparing for the Fall & Holiday shopping season. Between new Fall fashion, kids and college students going back to school, leaf peeping, craft fairs, holiday fairs, business parties, gift swaps, etc. now is the time (as was all Summer, but now especially) that you need to buckle down and get those items up because they will go quickly! Everyone is shopping, and what better way to do it than in the comfort of your own home in your jammies with a big mug of coffee (or wine if you prefer). There is so much to discover for that perfect, one of a kind gift!

But, first, let's go back and share some Ladies Night Out pictures!

We had a great time and it was well attended by old and new friends, with music, food, shopping, and even a fashion show at the end of the evening.

It was a really nice evening, sunny with a little wind (which blew over one of our displays, but that's ok). This is the front of our table...small, but we were limited to size restrictions as there were a load of vendors inside and out. Believe me, we crammed as much into our space as would allow. I always like that anyway, I would rather walk into a store that is jam packed, do an initial sweep of the goodies and then go back and peek into all the little crevices to find the treasures they hide. Find a lot of good stuff that way!

Above are some of our handmade items, for this show we brought both vintage and vintage inspired handmade goodies. From the top left and going clockwise, we had: a whole suitcase of vintage Christmas balls, some mid century home décor, a vintage candy tin with spectacular graphics, a show special of 70's bangle bracelets for a song (housed in a 50's hat box). The little items clipped onto the hat box and the wire basket are handmade hair clips, which we would up selling a bunch of. Some are made re-purposing old buttons and jewelry and some are covered blank buttons using vintage fabric and scanned photos. You definitely have a one of a kind piece of hair jewelry when you wear one of these! You can find some on our Etsy site here: Vintage Inspired Hair Clips Next, an old table top writing desk that we saved, painted and collaged.....this got a lot of interest, but I don't think anyone was in the kind of mood to lug it through the evening and the fashion show. We'll be putting it up on Etsy soon! In the wire basket were some record album journals made with vintage record covers and new paper, great for back to school!

The above photo shows our vintage Garay mushroom box purse...which another vendor suggested we improve it by adding a spigot and using it to tote salubrious libations (ha! wine) in. Pretty interesting!

which are little collages using scrapbook paper and actual vintage images either from magazines or sewing patterns. Above that some more hair clips, and in the pink vintage hat box, actual antique and vintage advertising pages for framing Vintage Advertising <= this link will take you to a few of them, but we hope to have more up soon, they have been selling very well! People like to use these in their home as conversation piece décor....but, you could also use them for collage and art projects too. And, in the center, our display of some pretty vintage bangle bracelets.

It was a fun evening, and as shirt guy always says, "It was sooooo beautiful....Gotta Have it!"

What a beauty! It looked like a giant piece of swirl candy, and the center of the top had a purple velvet bow. Not sure if she collects hats or boxes or both, but this went to a good home.

Lots more hat boxes to list, let us know if you are looking for something special....a certain color, certain size, or certain vintage retailer.

Hat boxes are not only good for storing hats, but for all sorts of storage! They really come in handy for small Christmas ornaments or other holidays tiny things. They are great for old letters, or photos. I used to use one for my mailing supplies: return address stickers, tape, ribbon, bags, etc.

That's what went out the door this week! Again, if you are in Central MA on Thursday, stop by to the center of town and partake in the Ladies Night festivities.

Come on by and say hello, we will have some specials going on at our booth, we have a gift certificate & earrings up for their raffle, and we also contributed little OA gift bags for the larger goodie bags being handed out to the first 150 lucky ladies.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

I've been going through a lot of books, magazines & paper lately and this one really struck me as funky & Offbeat!

There are SO many things in this magazine that just take me right back :) Enjoy!

A 1968 copy of the children's Golden Magazine! And, it's the Halloween one!

The back cover has a great old advertisement for Matchbox cars! Love "Sandbox Canyon"!

This spread is for the upcoming Saturday morning cartoon lineup. I've focused in on the details below, as this is just killer! I definitely remember being in my feetie pajamas, eating King Vitamin cereal, until we were either tossed outside to play (Summer), or Creature Feature came on (Winter).

Get a load of that set with the old rabbit ears!

ABC's Lineup:

Casper

Adventures of Gulliver

Spider-Man

Fantastic Voyage

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Fantastic Four

NBC's Lineup:

Super 6

Top Cat (I always get him confused with Snagglepuss)

Flintstones

The Banana Bunch Adventure Hour

Young Samson

and CBS's Lineup:

Go Go Gophers (LOVED it!)

The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Hour

Wacky Races

The Archie Show

The Batman/Superman Hour

The Herculoids

Above is the contents page.

Cannot wait until Fall & Halloween, the best time of the year!

Love the Betty Crocker cake and Jack O' Lantern illustrations!

Here's the little jester toucan guy that was, I guess, the mascot. A little dude I had forgotten.

His name is Cracky. That name probably wouldn't "fly" now.....

Great illustration, love the 'shrooms! Can you find all the hidden things?

There should be three witches, two owls, a bat, a jack o' lantern, and a rat.

Above is a Lesson in Spanish!

Ooooohhh the colors! Maybe the artist liked the 'shrooms too much as well?

The magazine still has the paper dolls intact! So cute.

Queen of the air, huh? I'm not too sure about these two pages. They definitely show a period in time!

I really loved this bag, wanted to keep it but, how many bags can one person have? Wait, don't answer that, NEVER too many! It had little feet so it stood up, and cool keyhole clasp, and all the different shades of leather were so stylish! Just heard back today and she loves it too :)

No matter how many vintage shaving sets we get, we cannot keep them in stock, they are a hot collectible right now! Also, my brother, who works for Gillette told me, this is special because, it's got red in it. Years ago they stopped making anything with red in it because it reminded people of blood, not something you want to think about when you're shaving.

That's why this is so much fun to do, you learn new little tidbits every day,

with almost every item you research.

If Regis ever starts doing "Who Wants to Be a Useless Information Millionaire" I am SO winning!